Nick Mediati, PC World

Smartphone malware attacks get a lot of attention, but you’re much more likely to lose your device than you are to contract a smartphone virus infection. And you’re just as vulnerable to other problems--such as phishing and spam--on a phone as you are on a PC. No need to panic, however: The following Android and iPhone security tools will help to protect your phone from all kinds of threats.

Android Apps

MyBackup Pro: The Android OS has built-in backup and restore functionality, but handset makers sometimes don’t enable this feature on their phone models. And Android’s basic recovery program won’t bring back your call logs, text messages, or photos if you lose them.

[Photo: Robert W. Darabos on Kickstarter]Discovered in 1974, the Terracotta Army is a vast collection of sculptures that depicts an army that dates back to the 3rd century B.C. It's mind-blowing, and it serves as the inspiration for a recent Kickstarter project.

Artist Robert W. Darabos wants to re-create this wonder of the ancient world, expect using sculptures of Lego minifigures. According to Robert's Kickstarter page, the project started a something of a joke after he made six Lego minifigure sculptures out of clay. A student of his suggested making an "army" of clay minifigures, and after mulling it over for a while, Robert decided to go ahead with the project.

Microsoft Security Essentials 2.1, the fifth-place finisher in PCWorld's 2012 free antivirus roundup, is something of a mixed bag. I like its interface, and it is reasonably good at cleaning up infections, but it falters at stopping new malware, and it plods through its chores.

Security Essentials' user interface is particularly straightforward--perfect if you don't want to waste time messing around with your antivirus software.

PC Tools AntiVirus Free 2012 has its strong points, but it was the worst of the products tested in our April 2012 antivirus roundup when it came to blocking new malware. In our real-world blocking tests, PC Tools managed to stop only 57.1 percent of malware samples, placing it well behind its competition in this roundup.

On the plus side, PC Tools detected 99.96 percent of known malware from the past four months. It is also one of the best free antivirus programs at disinfecting a PC. It detected all infections on our test system, and it successfully disabled 93 percent of the infections. It removed all traces of malware in 73 percent of the cases.

Comodo Internet Security Premium 5.9 has an accessible interface, and it comes with a firewall. It's the only freebie we tested in our April 2012 free antivirus roundup that has a firewall, but in both malware blocking and cleanup, it ranks be­­hind other free antivirus products we tested. Since this testing was completed, Comodo has released version 5.10, which has not yet been tested.

Comodo's performance in our real-world tests was acceptable: It blocked 78.6 percent of new malware, slightly above average compared with other free antivirus programs. It partly blocked an additional 21.4 percent of attacks. But Comodo protected poorly against well-known malware. It detected 98.2 percent of zoo samples. Though that may sound like a good score, only two of the nine products we tested performed worse.

Malwarebytes Antimalware Free 1.61 is a supplemental free product that can help bolster your existing security software. The makers of Malwarebytes Antimalware pitch it as a tool for detecting and removing brand-new "zero-day" malware, and it uses a number of different technologies to accomplish this task.

The software did perform decently compared with other freebies in PCWorld's 2012 free antivirus roundup when it came to stopping new malware. In our real-world tests, Malwarebytes fully blocked 78.6 percent of samples--slightly better than average--and partially blocked an additional 14.3 percent. It's also reasonably fast: It had the lightest overall impact on system performance of any free antivirus product we tested.

Avira Free Antivirus 2012 is fast and is unlikely to scare you with false-positive warnings about legitimate files, but it is also worse than average at detecting malware, and its interface is overly complicated.

When tested for PCWorld's April 2012 roundup of free antivirus software, Avira blocked 70.4 percent of the samples of new viruses in our real-world test, slightly worse than average for the tools we tested. It also lags in disinfection: Though it found all active malware infections on our test system, it disabled only 80 percent of them, another worse-than-average showing.

If you think setting up antivirus software should be as simple as possible, Panda Cloud Antivirus 1.5 is for you. Panda stops malware well, and its extremely easy-to-use interface is great for those people who don't want to tweak all sorts of settings.

In the testing for PCWorld's April 2012 feature "Free Antivirus You Can Trust," Panda blocked 85.7 percent of new malware, the same score as top pick AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition. And the Panda freebie outperformed AVG in the malware zoo test by detecting 99.94 percent of the samples.

Avast's freebie finished second in PCWorld's 2012 free antivirus roundup. Avast Free Antivirus 7 mostly excelled in protecting against malware, it has a versatile interface, and it sped through our battery of malware tests.

Avast's defenses were weakest at blocking new real-world threats: It caught just 78.6 percent of them--not outstanding, but slightly above average. Avast did far better at stopping well-known malware, detecting 99.1 percent of samples in our zoo test--a very good showing. This package cleans up malware infections effectively, as well. It de­­tected all the malware residing on our test PC, and disarmed the invaders 93 percent of the time, tying for second-best in this test. The utility also removed all traces of infections two-thirds of the time.

PC Tools Threatfire Free 4.7 won't replace your existing antivirus software, since it won't effectively clean up malware that has already infected your computer. What it will do, however, is excel at preventing brand-new threats from infiltrating your system.

Because of the way Threatfire works, we were unable to test it against our malware zoo of known threats, as we did with other software in PCWorld's 2012 free antivirus roundup. Threatfire doesn't use traditional signature files; instead, it relies solely on behavioral analysis--that is, it identifies malware based on how the invader acts on your PC.

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition was PCWorld's top pick in April 2012's Free Antivirus You Can Trust. It performed well in virtually all of the tests we ran.

In our real-world malware detection tests, which evaluate how well an antivirus package will block brand-new threats, AVG's freebie blocked 85.7 percent of the samples, tying for the best result among the programs we tested. It detected 98.7 percent of the more than 129,000 samples of malware from the past four months in our malware "zoo" test. That's a good score, although a bit short of the best results we've seen.

[Screenshot: BigBoss]For the most part, the fact that iPad apps always run full-screen works pretty well. After all, it makes it easier to focus on the task at hand, and in a sense, it effectively turns your iPad into the app you're using. But it's not for everyone, and there may be times where you want to be able to see two apps at a time. Enter Quasar.

Quasar is a window manager for the iPad that lets you run individual apps within windows--sort of like how apps on your PC or Mac behave. For instance, you can work on a document in Pages but still be able to peek at a webpage you have open in the background.